GTEs produce power by extracting energy from a flow of hot gas produced by combustion of fuel in a stream of compressed air. In general, turbine engines have an upstream air compressor coupled to a downstream turbine with a combustion chamber (“combustor”) in between. Energy is released when a mixture of compressed air and fuel is burned in the combustor. In a typical turbine engine, one or more fuel injectors direct a liquid or gaseous hydrocarbon fuel into the combustor for combustion. The resulting hot gases are directed over blades of the turbine to spin the turbine and produce mechanical power.
High performance GTEs include cooling passages and cooling fluid to improve reliability and cycle life of individual components within the GTE. For example, in cooling the turbine section, cooling passages are provided within the turbine blades to direct a cooling fluid therethrough. Conventionally, a portion of the compressed air is bled from the air compressor to cool components such as the turbine blades. The amount of air bled from the air compressor, however, is limited so that a sufficient amount of compressed air is available for engine combustion to perform useful work.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,137,784 to Hall et al. (the '784 patent) describes a thermally loaded component having at least one cooling passage for the flow of a cooling fluid therethrough. According to the '784 patent, a blade or vane of a turbomachine may incorporate diverter blades to divert cooling fluid into cooling passages. The diverter blades include first and second diverter parts spaced at a distance from one another over a height of a cooling passage.